Your humble scribe and a couple of mailpals have been giving the whole Donald Trump thing a bit of back and forth via mails this morning, what with his South Carolina win last night. Here’s one of the mails I wrote to them, it’s making the blog after one of the mailpals suggested it could be fun to see on the blog.
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I think on one
level Trump’s campaign is clever. He (or his team) has identified that
there’s been a big growth in GOP supporters who are 1) disenfranchised
with the whole political system and 2) are plug dumb stupid. So he
pitches to them, he gains their support with the most facile of slogans
(“he’s gonna make America great again because it says so on his baseball
cap”), keeps them amused and entertained with anti-system potshots that
fit his “You’re Fired!” TV personality.My
question: What happens in round 2 of the campaign, when he gets the GOP
nomination (which now seems likely) and is up against (probably)
Hillary? The classic move is towards the centre, to pick up the support
of the 4% or 5% of US citizens who swing the country either way in any
given election. He’ll have the mouthbreathers sewn up and on his side by
then, he won’t need to pander to them any longer, they’ve served his
Round One purpose. He’ll be able to soundbite himself as more
intelligent, surprise people with his “depth of understanding on the
issues”, all the racist sexist bigotry bile is filed away for another
day. He’ll lull them to sleep, he’s going to look least worst among
moderate GOPpers who couldn’t possibly vote for him in the primaries but
just the thought of tactically voting a Clinton into office in order to
avoid a circus barker in the oval office brings them out in a cold
sweat.And
Hillary, like her or not, has a whole trainload of baggage, is an easy
target on several fronts and isn’t a person who the undecided will
happily float towards. She’s the dream opposition for Trump, his
negative attacks will be an onslaught. And though I like Sanders and his
policies (you up there call him commie, he’s classic centre-left no
more) he’s doesn’t have a chance. So how does DEM stop Trump? If Mikey B
runs independently he’ll take more votes away from Hillary than The
Donald, he opens the door for Trump. So as far as I can see, the only
way is if Bloomberg gets the DEM nomination, or creates a
Bloomberg/Hillary ticket. Either that or it’s Donald vs Hillary and I have no idea which way that one will go, it’s a big risk scenario.All
that’s on one level, Trump’s campaign has been, quite literally, a
revelation. But on the most important level this is craziness squared,
it’s nuts, the most powerful country in the world is on course to put a
sociopath in charge! And I was worried about Sarah Palin being Veep
under McCain, seriously, this is the Doomsday Clock at a whole different
level. I too fear for the world, seriously.
UPDATE: Nice feedback from reader PB, here below. I’m fully aware that this whole “Trump Thing” must have been debated to death up there already and I know that it’s extremely unlikely that I’m adding anything new to the chattersphere (and I’m certainly aware that my dos centavitos makes no difference whatsoever to the greater scheme of things). What I can tell you is that I haven’t been following the debate, so when smarter people have done the legwork already it’s only right that I point you their way. Thanks again, PB.
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allow me to introduce you to some alternative points of view on the donald:
Donald Trump and the politics of resentment (the archdruid report)
On the next one start with what he himself says is the most important one, then you can go from there if you so choose:
The Trump master persuader index and reading list (Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert cartoons)
IKN back with a PS: I had no idea Scott Adams had been so this active on the subject, there’s a whole series there waiting for you.